News Release

BOSTON – (June 16, 2014) – Joslin Diabetes Center and Carlos Slim Health Institute (CSHI) announced they have created a partnership to develop a series of online “virtual” case based interactive educational materials for primary care physicians in Mexico. The educational materials will cover topics such as, prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes as well as its complications and co-morbidities.

According to Martin J. Abrahamson, M.D., FACP, Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Joslin and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, “We have been in discussions with the CSHI for some time about the ways in which Joslin and CSHI can collaborate to have an impact on the millions of people with chronic non-communicable diseases, like diabetes. We look forward to this initiative making a substantial contribution to addressing the epidemic of diabetes in Mexico.”

Roberto Tapia-Conyer, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Carlos Slim Foundation commented, “Our mission is to strengthen the capacity of primary health workers throughout Mexico and Latin America to advance in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and non-communicable diseases. By launching this flagship platform with virtual cases, we are strengthening primary care physicians’ competences in both urban and rural settings, providing quality education for health workers at primary clinics.”

Dr. Abrahamson served as the lead negotiator for this collaboration, which will be managed by Enrique Caballero, M.D., Director of International Professional Education and Director of the Latino Diabetes Initiative (LDI), Karen Kuc, Assistant Director of Grants and Projects in Professional Education and some members of the LDI team.

Dr. Caballero’s role will include guiding the educational design of the clinical cases, which are simulated vignettes of patients with diabetes who face particular challenges.

“The collaboration between Joslin and the CSHI will support the development of clinical cases to be accessed online by healthcare professionals in Mexico in order to improve their knowledge and competence in managing patients with diabetes and related conditions,” said Dr. Caballero. “The goal is to elevate the confidence of healthcare professionals so they can better manage their many patients with diabetes on a day-to-day basis.”

The cases will be written by Joslin faculty, who will share their expertise in specific areas of diabetes care. Once the clinical cases are created, the LDI will ensure the content, language and cultural implications are appropriate and aligned to the needs and context that patients and health care professionals face in Mexico.

Both organizations envision that this initial program will be the foundation for future educational activities and projects to contribute to the improvement of the lives of patients and families with diabetes in Mexico.

“We hope this is the first phase in a series of agreements that will cement the partnership between Joslin and CSHI to work together to impact the lives of millions of people who either have diabetes or are at risk for diabetes,” said Dr. Abrahamson.